The three partners of crew members of the Bugaled Breizh visit Lizard Point where the fishing boat was lost 12 miles out to sea with all crew. Pictured are Martine Bovaziz (black jacket),Martine Chartier (blue jacket hat) and Suzanne Cille (scarf)

Families who believe a submarine was responsible for the sinking of a French trawler could finally get answers, more than 14 years after five French fishermen died when their boat sank off the coast of Cornwall.

An inquest into how the men aboard the Bugaled Breizh died could begin in late summer or early autumn 2018, Cornwall Coroner Emma Carlyon has announced.

Dr Carlyon said she would also review the guidance from the Hillsborough inquest, where the state was implicated in the deaths of football fans, reports Cornwall Live.

The trawler from Loctudy, Brittany, sank 14 miles from Lizard Point in January 2004.

The wreck of the fishing vessel Bugaled Breizh is lifted to the surface by the salvage vessel

The fishermen’s families claimed it was pulled under after tangling its nets with a submarine during a Nato exercise, although this is disputed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Alan Ayres, the owner of Plymouth-registered scalloper The Pescado, whick sank with loss of six lives in 1991, has long claimed his vessel also went down after a collision with a submarine - and there are “striking similarities” with the Bugaled Breizh case.

Despite two court cases, a marine accident report and a police investigation all coming to a different conclusion, Mr Ayres remains convinced the 70-foot Pescado went down after a collision with a submarine.

The Bugaled Breizh inquest will examine the deaths of skipper Yves Marie Gloaguen, 45, and Pascal Lucien Le Floch, 49, the only crew whose bodies were recovered by the authorities in Cornwall.

Family members of the crew had travelled from Brittany to attend the coroner’s preliminary hearings four times regarding the deaths but postponements had been made for more evidence to be gathered.

No relatives of Mr Gloaguen and Mr Le Floch were able to attend the fifth pre-inquest hearing on Wednesday, where the coroner ruled the inquest would go ahead next year without the jury that was previously planned.

The families' QC, Julian Malins, petitioned for a jury on behalf of Mr Gloaguen's and Mr Le Floch's relatives and said that a jury was "the best possible guardian of insuring the experts talk in in a way that is understood".

Mr Malins also spoke about his belief that the coroner should rule that Article 2 applies to the inquest. An Article 2 inquest would suggest there were failings on the part of the state to protect life - it would investigate whether the authorities knew, or ought to have known, of a real and immediate risk to the life of an individual and failed to take measures which could have avoided that risk.

Mr Malins said that invoking Article 2 would bring the MoD "out of tortoise mode" and encourage the MoD to "come forward pro-actively".

He also suggested that Article 2 would enable the family to obtain legal aid. Public funding can only be sought for an inquest under "exceptional criteria" which lists two grounds - one of which is an Article 2 inquest.

Thierry Le Metayer, son of Georges Le Metayer , one of the five victims of the Bugaled Breizh tragedy off the Lizard in January 2004

Dr Carlyon said that whether Article 2 applied was "still under review".

She also decided that an independent expert would be assigned to investigate what caused the vessel to sink.

She said she would make contact with the organisation holding the retrieved vessel in France to ask it to postpone its destruction until after the expert has a chance to investigate, if deemed necessary.

When the wreck was raised in 2004, the body of Patrick Gloaguen, 35, was recovered to France. The remains of other sailors Eric Guillamet, 42, and Georges Lemétayer, 50, have never been found.

The evidence includes witness accounts from other fishermen, the crew of a Navy search and rescue helicopter and coastguards as well as legal and technical reports prepared for court proceedings in France.

The wreck of the fishing vessel "Bugaled Breizh" is lifted to the surface by the salvage vessel " Discovery" in sheltered waters off Falmouth, Cornwall

Dr Carlyon said at a hearing last year that she would have to make an application for evidence through the French Embassy, including underwater video footage of the wreck by submersible robots.

The MoD has provided details of its ships in the area and the coastguard has been asked to provide plots of all the vessels at the time of the disaster.

Dr Carlyon previously said a decision can then be made on the scope of the inquest, which could include rumours of an alleged conspiracy.

She would also review the guidance from the Hillsborough inquest, where the state was implicated in the deaths of football fans.

An injured fan receiving attention on the pitch at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, in 1989, where 96 football fans died. Last year an inquest jury ruled the Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed and a catalogue of failings by police and the ambulance services contributed to their deaths.

The inquest into the death of Princess Diana was held up as an example at a hearing last year. It was argued that the Princess of Wales’ inquest was extended to allay widespread rumours of an alleged conspiracy.

The same argument was put forward to extend the scope of the inquest into the deaths of the crew of the trawler Bugaled Breizh, which has been widely blamed on a Nato submarine.

Loss of Pescado still a mystery 25 years after sinking, writes Martin Freeman

The Pescado

Twenty-five years ago the fishing boat Pescado sailed out of a Cornish harbour and into an enduring mystery.

Six people died when the Plymouth-based scalloper sank off the coast of Cornwall in 1991.

But how they came to be killed is still disputed, despite two court cases, a marine accident report and a police investigation.

The boat’s co-owner remains convinced that the 70-foot vessel went down after a collision with a submarine.

“I have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years trying to find out exactly what happened,” said Alan Ayres 77, of Plymouth. “I have never stopped trying. It is the only thing that has kept me sane.”

Alan Ayres, owner of the Plymouth fishing boat Pescado

His claims have consistently been denied by the Ministry of Defence, which has always insisted that it has co-operated fully.

A report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) in 1998 concluded that the Pescado heeled over, flooded and sank because her fishing gear fouled.

“A lack of a properly qualified and experienced crew” and inadequate life-saving equipment contributed to the loss of the boat and the six lives, the MAIB report said.

However, a lawyer involved in the case told The Herald that the MoD’s refusal to fully disclose “critical documentation” about warships in the area when the Pescado sank remained a key point.

“It is very, very disappointing,” said Charles Hattersley, who represented the family of Jo-Ann Thomas from Plymouth, one of the six.

Miss Thomas, 23, was the ship’s cook and the fiancee of Neil Currie, 27, a Scot, the Pescado’s first mate.

Jo-Ann Thomas and her fiance Neil Currie, who both died when the Pescado went down off the coast of Cornwall, in February 1991.

The other victims were Sean Kelly, 17, of Brixham, and Steven Hardy, 30, of Plymouth, the boat’s skipper, Peter Birley, 34, of Lancashire and Adrian Flynn, 21, from Lincoln.

Mr Ayres had no knowledge or experience of fishing. The co-owner, Joseph O’Connor, also from Plymouth, was experienced and knowledgeable, and was the shore manager of the Pescado.

In 1996 both faced manslaughter charges connected to the sinking. Mr Ayres was cleared at that trial in Bristol. Mr O’Connor was convicted, but cleared on appeal.

The Pescado sailed from Falmouth on February 25, 1991, and the alarm was raised on March 5 after no contact with the ship. The weather in days after she sailed included winds up to Force 6.

The wreck was identified 240 feet down, 13 miles off the Dodman Point by divers hired by Mr Ayres in May that year. They filmed the wreckage and took samples of black marks along the boat’s hull which Mr Ayres says were later confirmed by expert analysis to be paint “similar to” that from a submarine.

The 1998 MAIB report said that the marks possibly came from the boat’s own gear rubbing the hull and found no evidence of a collision.

Mr Ayres, though, says there are “striking similarities” to the sinking of a French trawler west of Lizard Point in January 2004 with the loss of all five crew.

There have been claims that a submarine involved in a Nato exercise was to blame for Bugaled Breizh sinking, which has been denied by the authorities.

The MoD will face questioning when an inquest is held in Cornwall in July into the French deaths.

No inquest was held into the Pescado incident as the coroner at the time ruled that the matter had been investigated by the criminal trial.

The Pescado

“I have always been denied the chance to put my evidence to an inquest,” said Mr Ayres who has advised the families of the French sailors. “I hope the evidence at the Bugaled Breizh inquest will helped lead to a judicial review allowing an inquest into the Pescado.”

Last September the MoD admitted that a British submarine snagged the nets of a trawler from a Northern Ireland port. Initially the MoD had denied involvement in the incident that April in which the Karen was dragged back at speed.

Mr Hattersley said that as well as the lack of full cooperation by the MoD, his efforts on behalf of Rita Capon, the now-late mother of Miss Thomas, were hampered by a lack of resources to pursue the MoD further and to commission expert witness reports of the kind available to the criminal trial. “We were acting on legal aid,” said Mr Hattersley, now head of the marine team at Ashfords.

In addition “the MAIB report was not as thorough” as the standard today.

“We are just sorry that we could do what we wanted to do for the families involved,” he said.

“This is not an isolated case. Statistically the fishing industry is the most dangerous industry in Europe.